LOCAL NEWS

According to the KSP in Pikeville, on Monday July 7, 2014 Post 9, Pikeville received a call of a shooting complaint in the Stopover community of Pike County around 4 am Monday morning. Trooper Jason McClellan responded to the area and located four individuals with gunshot wounds, three men and one woman. They are not calling anyone victims or suspects just yet as the investigation continues. All four individuals were airlifted to Pikeville Medical Center for their injuries. Kentucky State Police Post 9 Detectives are still conducting their investigations. Names of the parties involved are not being released at this time due to ongoing investigation.

Police Arrest Four in Lawrence County following Drug Raid

According to the Louisa Police Department, four people have been arrested and are facing charges after a drug raid in Lawrence County. Officers report those individuals arrested were: Lori Hall, 41, Lacy Hall, Jr., 56, and Lacy James Hall, 25, all of Louisa, are charged with trafficking a controlled substance after a search warrant was executed late last week. Another man, Delbert Chaney, 40, of Louisa, was also arrested at the scene and has been charged with tampering with physical evidence. All four were taken to the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center.

Ashland Man Arrested in Connection to a Death Investigation

Ashland Police have arrested the man wanted in connection to the death of Russell Chandler, whose body was found in an Ashland Hotel room. Joe Bentley, 52, was arrested at a gas station after an anonymous call came into the station on Sunday. Chandler was found dead in his room at the Bluegrass Inn in Ashland, June 21, were he was a resident. Bentley is being charged with first-degree manslaughter. Police are continuing to investigate this incident.

Missing Perry County Man Found Dead In Overturned Vehicle

The discovery of a body in the Vicco community of Perry County last Saturday has ended the search for a missing Perry County man. According to the Kentucky State Police in Hazard, troopers responded to Georges Branch Road after Perry County Sheriff's deputies found a body in a vehicle that was resting over an embankment. Police say the body was that of Coy David Banks, 62, Vicco. Banks had been reported missing by his wife on Wednesday, July 2, three days before the vehicle was found.

Police say it appears that Banks was operating a 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier eastbound on a mining road off of Georges Branch when he lost control of the vehicle and traveled over an embankment where the car overturned before coming to rest. Police say Banks was partially ejected from the vehicle and did not appear to be wearing a seat belt. No foul play is suspected and toxicology results are pending.

Eastern Kentucky Receives $1 Million Grant

A national community service organization is investing $1 million in eastern Kentucky to help the region recover from the downturn in the coal industry. The money from the Corporation for National and Community Service will hire 52 full-time workers to recruit volunteers for 16 nonprofit groups on issues ranging from education and poverty. It is one of the first initiatives of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region, an initiative founded by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers to help eastern Kentucky. Beshear and Rogers also announced Monday $312,000 in technical assistance from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Eastern Kentucky has lost more than 7,000 direct coal mining jobs since Jan. 1, 2012.

High-Speed Broadband: The Public-Private Debate

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Kentucky is one of 31 states with no barriers to the creation of municipally-run or nonprofit broadband networks. Bardstown, Murray and Frankfort are among communities in the state that have some form of publicly owned Internet service. But others face big hurdles. Christopher Mitchell directs the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. He said consumer choice is at the heart of community broadband networks. "Fundamentally, there's a lack of competition," said Mitchell. "The reason that cities step into this space is because we don't believe the private sector is capable of resolving that lack of competition on its own."

Some cities and local governments have had difficulty keeping the community Internet provider model alive. Libertarians and conservatives often say government should not be involved providing Internet service. Ryan Radia, associate director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Pew Research statistics show 1 in 4 Americans do not want broadband access at home. "A non-trivial portion of Americans," said Radia, "especially in some of the cities where we see these networks, don't value broadband. I'm troubled by the idea of the government providing it." Mitchell argued that community broadband networks are important because they go up against a handful of companies with a stranglehold on the business. He said he would have a difficult time competing with Comcast to provide Internet access in his hometown of St. Paul, Minn.

"I'd need to raise about $200 million probably to build a network that would compete with them," Mitchell said. "As soon as I did that, Comcast would cut its rates significantly. And people, being very price-sensitive, would decide not to go with my new, faster, better service." He added that community networks are often demonized by big cable and telephone companies for 'failing' when they don't create profits in the first 3 years. But few would demand that local governments turn a profit on roads they manage within 3 years of building them.